Gingrich Supremely Confident

WASHINGTON — A month before his formal elevation to speaker of the House, Rep. Newt Gingrich is awhirl in the capital, dominating the news, recommending books ("Creating a New Civilization: The Politics of the Third Wave") and movies ("Boys Town") and dispensing advice, some of it solicited.

After 16 years on the edges of the Capitol Hill stage, the Georgia Republican is front and center.

Gingrich's verbose, combative style already has produced a national debate over state-sponsored orphanages and a full-blown feud with the Clinton administration over his uncorroborated allegations of past drug use by "a quarter of the White House staff."

Behind doors closed to Republicans during 40 years of Democratic dominance of the House, Gingrich is consolidating power inside the speaker's office, power he soon will translate into advancing an ambitious legislative agenda.

With the enthusiastic backing of nearly all his 229 GOP colleagues, Gingrich is limiting the authority of senior lawmakers who chair major committees, in some cases installing his own choices.

He is promoting internal term limits for committee chairs (though not for the speaker) and using a Democratic model to ensure that committee assignments remain in his purview.

Gingrich casts his legislative maneuvering as a logical response to the message of the Nov. 8 election.

"The American people are tired of gridlock," he said last week. "They're tired of a diffuse, decentralized system that can't make decisions."

Gingrich believes he is filling a leadership vacuum, believes that the Republican triumph last month signaled a new-found public faith in a Congress with a GOP majority.

Supremely confident, he fancies himself a master political tactician, crafting a Republican majority on the back of his "Contract With America," the 10-point campaign platform of tax cuts and reform proposals he offered in September.

"I think of myself as the player-coach," he said with a smile.

"This was a surprising election," said Charles O. Jones, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution. "What's remarkable about Gingrich is that when people wondered what the explanation was for the surprise, he said, `I'm the explanation for the surprise.' "

Last week, at Gingrich's bidding, House Republicans imposed six-year term limits on committee chairs, then altered rules that in the past have allowed certain committees-Ways and Means, Appropriations-to claim specific authority over important pieces of legislation.

Instead, decisions on how important bills move through the legislative process will be sorted out by Gingrich and his lieutenants.

Gingrich has changed the system for parceling out committee assignments, a system in which he and his designated majority leader, Rep. Dick Armey of Texas, will control an internal voting mechanism and thus, the lineup of Republicans on committees.

Even before the celebratory gathering last Monday in which House Republicans formally made the 51-year-old former college professor their leader, Gingrich had essentially overhauled the seniority system, passing over a number of senior Republicans on the Appropriations, Energy and Commerce, and Judiciary committees to install more aggressive chairs.

"He was ready when the conditions were right," Jones said. "Gingrich was ready in policy terms, with the `Contract With America.' I mean, whoever heard of a party platform in a midterm election? And he was ready in personnel terms, with some of these younger members loyal to him at his side."

Gingrich's hard-driving approach doesn't endear him to all Republicans, although few these days are willing to go public with that assessment.

In a Nov. 25 interview with the Tribune, departing GOP House leader Rep. Bob Michel of Illinois counseled Gingrich against concentrating power in the speaker's office.

"There's always a danger in clawing at power, because power corrupts," Michel said, noting that Gingrich "wants to change a lot of things (in Congress), probably more than I would have."

Inside the Capitol, however, the speaker-to-be is not hearing much dissent from GOP ranks. And he is making it clear that he has little appetite for being contradicted.

"Now that we are in the majority," said Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, "Newt has the complete trust of the overwhelming majority of members, who would yield what power he thinks he wants to organize this place.

"Now, this will moderate as time goes on and as we have some experience working under his leadership. But I think it's natural right now to have power focused on him and on his office."

Gingrich notes that about 60 percent of House Republicans have come to Congress in the last four years, and those younger members constitute the core of his authority.

Marshaling his forces, he's certain the public will be impressed by a Republican plan to pass a package of nine congressional reforms on the first day of the 104th Congress, which convenes in January.